Sign up online for a date and time, and leave the place to them. Four hours before the show starts, you'll get an email with a location, map and parking instructions.

They're about to launch their grand idea in Cincinnati with the first play in a four-play outdoor cycle of Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer stories with "The Complete Tom: 1. Adventures," an adaptation of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" to be performed across Cincinnati Aug. 20-28.

"We all come together at some random place in the woods. The actors show up, the artists show up, the viewers show up and we have this party in the woods for 90 minutes," Leak explains.

$6,000 grant helped keep artistic talent here

Leak came to Cincinnati from New York about a year ago to be a directing intern at Playhouse in the Park. She and Tatum were newlyweds, so Tatum, a playwright, came along.

The couple, in their early 30s, never planned to stay longer than Leak's year-long job at the Playhouse.

But then Tatum got this idea on his regular bike ride down to Lunken.

"I was biking along the river (near Lunken Field and Otto Armleder Park) one day and I found this little trail by the woods that went down to the riverbank ... a long, flat area and all these trees and the river," Tatum says. "I thought this would be such an awesome place to do a play, but I didn't have a play I could do there. ... Then a week later, I thought, someone should do Huck Finn down here. On the river.

"So I came home and said, 'Hey baby, wouldn't it be fun to do Huck Finn on the river?' And Bridget's like 'naaahhh.' ... Then a week later, I said, 'Hey baby, wouldn't it be fun to take everything Mark Twain ever wrote about Tom Sawyer and do them on the river? And Bridget's like 'naaahhh.'

"Then like a week later she calls and says, 'I found money for The Complete Tom,' " Tatum says.

Leak continues: "I was ... heating up my microwave dinner on a short break in a long day at the Playhouse." There's a bulletin board near the microwave and she stared at it while heating up her dinner.

"I called Trey from the darkened kitchenette at like 9 o'clock at night: 'I think I found money, Google-search this, I've got to go back to rehearsal.'"

What Leak saw that night was a call for applications for Cincinnati Arts Ambassador Fellowships.

"When we applied, she was like 'Baby, if we get it we would have to stay,' " Tatum says, "and I was like, 'Baby if we get it we would want to stay.' "

Leak applied and was one of six people to receive a $6,000 grant from the City of Cincinnati.

The grant will pay for the first two shows. The second, coming in early October is "The Complete Tom: 2. Huck Finn."

After starting up the business of Queen City Flash, paying artist stipends, buying props and supplies, securing site permits, and some costly insurance, they ended up not being able to pay themselves. But they're making art, so they're happily plowing ahead anyway.

And they have another four to five months to find money to put on the next two shows, versions of "Tom Sawyer Abroad" and "Tom Sawyer, Detective," two of Twain's lesser-known stories.

And Leak and Tatum are here indefinitely. Their show, "Slut Shaming," won the Artists' Pick award at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival, they've lined up jobs at local high schools as theater director and technical director, and they're doing shows at Know Theatre and working on "The Complete Tom" series. Leak will direct a play that's part of Playhouse's educational series during the winter.

As far as Queen City Flash goes, "Ultimately, we want to go into neighborhoods that don't live close to theater," Leak says. "We want to be able to find a church in that neighborhood, go into it, throw up a theater, do it for the community."

Back into the woods – and a dark cave – with the gang

Twain finished "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" in 1876. The play's language and customs are from that time. Tatum's adaptation stays true to Twain's story, but is tightly edited.

Tatum's script shows a reverence for Twain's words. Of the approximately 19,000 words of the script, Tatum estimates about 18,800 belong to Twain, including some narration from Twain's letters. But it doesn't take itself too seriously either.

You can feel Leak's directorial hand here, too. The play moves quickly, it's highly visual, and the actors bring a ton of energy to their roles.

But what makes this new project special will be the element of the surprise of the outdoor settings: The one where you can watch the sun go down as the play progresses. The one with a river view. Possibly some bonus fireworks. All of it staged for maximum mood-setting.

The last 30 minutes are in candlelight.

"If it works out, by the time Tom and Becky are lost in the cave, it will be dark outside," Tatum says. ■

If you go

What is this?

Queen City Flash, a new theater company created by former Playhouse in the Park directing intern Bridget Leak and her husband, playwright Trey Tatum.

First up in August: Tatum's adaptation of Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer."

There are six performances total, Aug. 20-23 and Aug. 27-28. The locations for four of the shows will be a mystery until 4 p.m. the day of the show.

The second play in the cycle, "The Complete Tom: 2. Huck Finn," will be performed in early October.

Two other plays in four-play cycle, based on "Tom Sawyer, Detective" and "Tom Sawyer Abroad," are planned for 2015.

How does it work?

1. Sign up for free tickets at www.queencityflash.com. You'll select the date and time, but won't know the location.

2. At 4 p.m., you'll get a map, parking instructions and directions to the secret location, most likely a Cincinnati park.

3. To the event, bring: a blanket or lawn chairs, a picnic dinner, bug spray. Watch the sun set as you're watching the play. The play runs 90 minutes.

Is it kid-friendly?

Yes, especially the Aug. 21 show at the Westwood Town Hall. With lively acting and appearances by puppets, it's especially good for elementary-school age and up.

You don't need to know the story to enjoy the play; thanks to the narration, it's easy to follow, and highly visual. If you're the type inclined to prepare, download a free audiobook from librivox.org.

Why give it a try? One early review

A certain girl, the one who lives with me, read "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" last year as an 8th grader. She hadn't made any secret of not liking the book, mostly about the adventures of a bunch of about-the-same-age boys, offering (over and over again) that it was a waste of her time. So I dragged her along to watch one of play's rehearsals in the basement of the dimly lit old Assumption Church in Walnut Hills.

Her brief review? "They turned an unenjoyable book into an enjoyable play." She can't wait to see it again in the woods.

About Cincinnati Arts Ambassadors

In 2012, the City of Cincinnati created a grant program for artists called the Cincinnati Arts Ambassador Fellowships.

Seven artists were selected for a 2012 program before the program was disbanded.

The grants came back in 2014, and five artists were selected to receive $6,000, among them Bridget Leak for the flash mob theater project. Others awarded this year: Susan Byrnes, Eddy Kwon, Jeanne Mam-Luft and Cathy Springfield.

One work made for the first cycle, Casey Riordan Millard's "Shark Girl by the River" sculpture, was acquired by the Albright Knox Museum in Buffalo, N.Y., and gifted to the city of Buffalo as a piece of permanent art.

The $50,000 program is not currently part of the city's fiscal year 2015 budget. The Cincinnati Recreation Commission, which administers the program, had to cut 3.5 percent from its budget and the program was a casualty.

"It's no negative statement about the program," said vice mayor David Mann. "These are tight times. It's a wonderful program, touching people who don't generally get touched by the city. ... I would hope we could restore it in future years."